I
love sports. I
use my iphone every day to read the sports page.
I have the philly.com app, the fox sports app and the yahoo sports app.
All this from a telephone!
But I don’t have ESPN.
Why? Because
I have to pay for it.
Unless I pay I’m an outsider.
To become an ESPN insider or to become an insider in almost anything
there’s a price I have to pay or there’s something I must do to earn insider
status, there’s some sort of “measuring up” required.
God
is different. Way
different. To
become an insider God’s Son paid the “fee”, the cost, and
there’s nothing more I need to add (or could add if I wanted to) to His having
given me insider status within the Kingdom of God.
God’s having raised him from the dead means that God takes every
connected to Jesus into his Kingdom with Jesus. I
don’t have to measure up, not that I ever could.
God through Jesus says, “trust me.
Come on in”.
Don’t stay on the outside.
Trust me, come in, live as an insider.
It will be an adjustment.
Leaving outsider status and choosing insider status will require time and
change, but it’s yours for the asking and the living.
On top of that you’ve got my help every step of the way.
Here’s
how the apostle Paul put it . . .
.
“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.
You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the
devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at
work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live
that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful
nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone
else.
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus”
Ephesians 2:1-7 (NLT)
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus”
Ephesians 2:1-7 (NLT)
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